A journey in learning: My reflective account

A living theory methodology for improving practice and generating knowledge asks questions of the kind ‘How do I improve what I am doing?’ This paper is a patchwork text: it explains how I enhanced my practice and gained clarity in my practice drawing on the Living Educational Theory approach. It concerns a personal journey I took and is the explanation of the educational influences on my learning and teaching: how I recognised my values and the inconsistencies between my values and my practice. It shows how I negated the contradictions and started living and practising my values in real life. I have used emails written to a friend and also to my mentor over a period of twelve years from 2004­‐2016 to represent the emotional side of my learning and my reflections to represent the theories of my learning. Through my journey I wish to illustrate the need for Government teachers in India to become well informed of current practices and theories in education if we wish to understand the needs of our students, meet those needs and know how to create and sustain an atmosphere of care, trust and co-­operation. I hope lessons learnt by me can be drawn on by other teachers so that they can make learning an enjoyable, stress-­free experience for the children of rural India.